How SAM Exploit Unlocked iPhone 4 Without the Original Sim Card

The old SAM unlock for iPhone was created by a Chinese hacker, called Loktar Sun. Standing for Subscriber Artificial Module it unlocked iPhone models as of 2012 but was apparently limited to only IOS 5 - 6.

iPhone jailbreak in progress

The excitement in the jailbreaking community was about its ability to hack into all iPhone basebands (BB) by then including 04.12.01 and the notorious 4.11.08.

Another kudos for it was the sheer speed at which the process was done. As long as the iPhone was already jailbroken, the entire process could go for less than ten minutes, depending on how accurate the user was.

Note: When deciding to jailbreak the iPhone, users had to avoid upgrading the IOS (iPhone Operating System).

Newer IOS did not support un-tethered jailbreak. This simply means that whenever you were to reboot iPhone, it would need to be connected (tethered) to the PC and a reboot done via a tool like Redsnow.

Guides on how to sim unlock iPhone 4 and 4S

The unlock dilemma

The only catch in the unlocking process is that the user had to have the original sim card in order to make a successful unlock. SAM replaced the IMSI id in the new sim with the code provided by the original carrier. It basically spoofed Apple and iTunes into accepting the old ISMI and ICCID into the new sim.

The problem was that not everyone had the original sim card with which to complete the process. Some users purchased their iPhones from eBay or through other sources online. Still, others who traveled overseas found themselves stuck with bricked devices when new sims they purchased away from home failed to work.

Know the iPhone original carrier

If faced with this dilemma you could possibly make a few phone calls and inquire from your retailer as to where and from which network carrier your phone was purchased, hoping that you got the answers, you could go ahead and unlock your iPhone using the instructions mentioned in the links above.

There was a possibility that a user would know the country where the iPhone was purchased and not the carrier provider. Your options included toggling through all carriers in the country of purchase.

If however, you failed to get the information, and that the iPhone had not gone through numerous hacks and jailbreaks before, then there was an alternative hack which perfectly worked for me. (NOTE: Numerous exploits may sometimes make the desired data fail to appear in the next hack below!)

The first step was to download iTools. You had tounzip the setup onto the desktop. With your iPhone plugged into the PC, you executed the iTools.exe file. iTools would promptly load an info page, as shown in the illustration below.

This main page had basic information about the iPhone.

Important here were:

The status of the iPhone; whether jailbroken or not. It was important to remember that the iPhone had to be jailbroken before attempting to unlock it using SAM!

The region where the iPhone was purchased.

iTools, a great tool that knows your iPhone too well

Additional details would be shown if you clicked on View Details tab at the bottom. Important here included:

The region where the iPhone was purchased,

The original carrier of your iPhone.

Armed with this information, you could be able to feed the correct data under country and carrier in the Methods option in the SAM exploit page.

Good Post!!Useful post for those who is in need of unlocking iPhone 4!! My sister unlocked her iPhone at http://www.wickedunlock.com/ using Remote unlocking service!!At wickedunlock the unlocking service is affordable and the unlocking process is simple to do!!